‘It’s A Pleasure To Be Nominated’ – South Africa’s Zola Nombona On Safta Nod

Known for her role as Shado in SABC1’s Intersexions, SA Film and Television Award (Safta) winner Zola Nombona has been nominated this year for her role as Roxanne in the third and final season of e.tv crime drama Z’bondiwe. Roxanne came into the show innocent and fresh-faced, but viewers soon learnt that she had many secrets.

Nombona is competing on M-Net’s Dancing with the Stars, and says she was surprised and happy to find out she was nominated for the award.

“It’s just such a good way to round off season three of Z’bondiwe and it was just an all-round pleasure working on the show,” she told #Trending.

Nombona is also proud of the women who appear on the show, telling e.tv in an interview last year: “Z’bondiwe possesses a pack of strong women. They go through intense adversities surrounded by all forms of violence and danger. I look up to them. I think a lot of women can identify with them and, in turn, can learn a lot from them.”

Nombona has starred in some of the country’s best productions, including Lockdown, iNumber Number (the series) and Mzansi Magic film Ingoma, for which she won the Safta for best achievement by a lead actress in a made for TV movie.

Nombona told Destiny Magazine last year that playing Roxanne was a turning point for her.

“Roxanne … was the cornerstone of change. It not only opened doors, but made South Africans realise my talent and diversity as an actress – people no longer saw me as a comedy actress, but got to experience a different performance style from me.”

Of her fellow nominees, she is complimentary and gracious, saying that she’s honoured to be in a category with them. Thuso Mbedu was her dramatic arts classmate at Wits University and Masasa Mbangeni was their senior.